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Merce, Rouse, eyeSpace, iPods & Website by Scherr Technology

In 2006 the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC)eyeSpace, a performance piece with music by Mikel Rouse. eyeSpace is unique in that “Mikel Rouses score incorporates the use of iPod Shuffle personal music listening devices and an environmental soundscape performed live by 1-2 musicians and projected throughout the theater. The score is crafted so that audience members have a meaningful, unique listening experience, whether they are tuned into the iPod portion (with headphones on, shuffling through tracks at their own pace) or enjoying ambient sound.”

Audience members who own an iPod, iPhone or other MP3 player were encouraged to load Mikel Rouse’s music tracks onto their device and bring it to the theater. During the performance, the audience was instructed on when to press [play] and listen.

Scherr Technology is proud to have contributed to this performance by providing a uniquely branded and trackable download page for all eighteen Merce Cunningham eyeSpace performances. Each audience member follows the website address (URL) included with their ticket. This page provides event information plus an online form to download the music (MP3 and AAC formats). Required fields included; email address, seat number, performance date and time. Download links and instructions are then dynamically loaded for the user. All music download is recorded for tracking purposes.

What Others are Saying About the iPod Collaboration

The random – play iPod concept updates a long-standing fascination with chance for Cunningham, who famously relied on the roll of a dice or the toss of an I Ching coin when choreographing pieces with frequent collaborator John Cage in the sixties.

Far from re-creating yesterday’s masterpieces, Cunningham’s dancers will perform a new work, with a score composed for iPods programmed to “shuffle,” and another piece devised especially for the center’s Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.

The score of “eyeSpace” is programmed on iPods distributed to audience members before the performance. An additional “environmental score” of city sounds is performed live. You can layer the sound if you want by listening to both, or turn off your iPod altogether. Either way, the soundscape is dense and surrounds the dancers like wet, heavy air.

About Mikel Rouse

For the last fifteen years, composer and performer Mikel Rouse has been developing a technically and thematically adventurous trilogy of multimedia operas that have played in theaters and festivals around the world. He’s putting the finishing touches on the final installment of this series, The End Of Cinematics, in anticipation of its September 17th premiere at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Visit the Mikel Rouse at mikelrouse.com.

About Scherr Technology

Founded in 1994 by Brian C. Scherr and located in New York, Scherr Technology is a full service Internet company. We specialize in; small business website design, content curation and maintenance, video enabled websites, search engine marketing, site redesigns, and e-commerce services. Scherr Technology provides unique solutions to a wide range of prestigious clientele. With an emphasis on usability and design, the application of next generation technologies brings you best of breed services. Get pre-qualified responses from your Internet footprint that become real-world relationships. Visit scherrtech.com.